Say what you like about Goldeneye but that game has single-handily ruined the James Bond name as far as video games go. The Nintendo 64 shooter was so well received that every 007 game since has been seen as a failed attempt to recreate it. It’s tough to think what a Bond game has to do to surpass it nowadays especially when you consider how dated the original Goldeneye is. That’s why it’s easy to understand the big budget that has gone into Quantum of Solace. Using the Call of Duty 4 engine, Quantum of Solace has a high bar to reach if it doesn’t want to be cast away with the other, so called, Goldeneye-wannabes.

Quantum of Solace for all intents and purposes is a great game. You play as a very good looking Daniel Craig playing James Bond as he follows up on the events of Casino Royale. Actually you play a few scenes from the prequel, Casino Royale, as flash backs in this game albeit slightly different from the films. You travel across the numerous locations seen in the film tending off who ever opposes you in what is a pretty good representation of the film.

QoS is made within the Call of Duty 4 engine and it’s very noticeable. The blur when you hold your gun up to the big give away of nearly identical controls really help you jump straight into the action. The big difference between Modern Warfare is that you can easily jump into cover Rainbow Six Vegas style. The camera pulls out to a 3rd person view that honestly feels awkward at times.

Less awkward feeling are the context sensitive mini-games you’ll encounter every couple of minutes. Events like running into an enemy will immediately throw you into a quick time event were you are engaging in some CQC. It works very well but you could just go around running into people starting what is a rather simple mini-game. Meanwhile you’ll come across environmental events such as running along thin pipes or perhaps dealing with a main character from the game. These work very well as they are a good change from the monotonous shooting elements of the game.

That’s the only real thing that lets the game down because Quantum of Solace just feels like it’s missing a lot of polish. The shooting periods of the game feel like they are just their to slow you down. They seem to be playing to CoD4’s biggest strength which was large scale battles with lots going on around you. This is great but it doesn’t really work well with the James Bond IP. You often feel like your a solider at war instead of a spy on a mission.

Luckily the game does feature a few stealth missions but they work bizarrely from the first person perspective. They also involve you doing the same tasks over and over again. You’ll often find a camera that if it sees you will set off an alarm and instead of making you simply dodge it you can press A on a nearby box to de-activate it. It just seems like a lazy solution to what could have been the games high points.

The game does feature some multiplayer that simply fails in comparison to a World at War or a Modern Warfare but it holds up on it’s own quite well. Their are enough modes and enough maps to keep you entertained for a while but nothing for the long term. The Golden Gun and Bond Evasion modes where incredibly interesting but feel like they need a bit more tweaking.

The truth is that ‘a bit more tweaking’ is a label that could be applied to any element of the game. A bit of polish and a bit more work and the game could have set a new legacy for future James Bond IPs to measure up against. Instead Quantum of Solace feels like a Daniel Craig model inside a lacklustre Call of Duty game that feels like being a gritty solider at war instead of a swarve spy at work. Despite this the game does depict a few scenes from the films very well and although it has the high bar that a Bond game has to meet, Quantum of Solace is a competent shooter that feels slightly off.